Unlike 08 numbers, 03 numbers cost the same to call as geographic landline numbers (starting 01 and 02), even from a mobile phone. They are also normally included in your inclusive call minutes. Please note we may record some calls.

10 Top Tips For Seasonal Social Media Management

It’s official; Christmas is fast approaching and even if you’re not excited about the holidays just yet, the big brands have been preparing for this moment for months.

The festive season is an incredibly important time for brands, both big and small, as are the many other holidays and international events throughout the year. Most brands often tailor their marketing campaigns accordingly, incorporating seasonal themes where they see fit.

With this in mind, we’ve put together this essential list of the top 10 tips for managing your social media profiles this season. Use this information to ensure that your Christmas campaigns are stronger than ever before.

1. Know Your Days

First things first, know exactly which special days are coming up and which ones you’re going to be celebrating. The Days Of The Year website is an invaluable resource on this front.

2. Research

As philosopher George Santayana rightly pointed out, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”. This especially applies to social media, where each and every one of your mistakes are publically viewable and the results are quantifiable. Use data collected from previous campaigns to enhance and improve your efforts this year.

3. Use Customer Data

There’s no point in talking to an audience who don’t want to hear from you. Carry out customer research and develop buyer personas for your audience in order to effectively target updates towards the right people.

This can also help you determine which holidays to focus on. Celebrating every international event and holiday is a complete waste of both yours and your audiences’ time, so discover which days your audience prefer and use this to inspire your updates.

4. Organise

Once you’ve done your research and you know which holidays you’ll be targeting, it’s time to collect all your hard work together and create a plan. You can use an editorial calendar, like the one from Convince and Convert, to organise all your upcoming social media activity throughout the year.

5. Schedule

Now you know what you will be posting on each given day, you’ll also need to determine the best time to post your social updates. Using tools, such as SocialBro or Tweriod, will allow you to determine when your posts will receive the most engagement and adjust your campaign accordingly.

For more information on the positive power of planning and organisation, take a look at James Perrin’s slide deck from the 2014 Content Marketing Show:

6. Post Seasonal Content

Whether you plan on running a festive campaign or not, it’s worth tailoring content to suit the holiday periods. This could involve tweaking a few tweets, or you could go the whole hog and build a campaign centred around the season.

After all, ‘tis the season to be merry, so why not customise your updates and replies and add a bit of festive cheer here and there. It doesn’t just have to be at Christmas either; there are plenty of holidays which can inspire different responses.

7. Streamline Your Content

Unless you want to confuse your readers, consistent branding is vital. Pick a design theme, colour scheme and font pack for each individual campaign and stick with it. Changing this halfway through will only cause disparity and cause users to disengage.

8. Proof Before You Post

Triple check that all of your content is correct before posting it live on any of your social media profiles. The best way to do this? Have someone else read over it. A fresh pair of eyes are a welcome resource, especially when you’ve been working on selected pieces for a long period of time.

This is also a great way to gauge the reaction your posts will receive. If you’re attempting to be risqué, witty, or you’re referencing topical situations to be relevant, it’s worth having someone else check to see that you’re not crossing any lines. Everything you post should match your brand voice; this rule doesn’t change when it comes to holidays.

If you don’t have someone else available, don’t fret. There are plenty of proofreading services, such as Wordy.com, that offer professional editing. If you’d rather someone else created the content and organised your accounts for you, Koozai offer a social media management service, so get in touch today to find out more.

9. Keep Posting

A lot of people go home for the winter holidays, but just because you’re not in the office that doesn’t mean the brands you manage should suffer. As Breaking Even Communications point out, when you update a Facebook page daily, you get a lot more engagement than just updating several times a week.

Use tools like Buffer, combined with the aforementioned tools, such as Tweriod and Socialbro, to schedule updates to post at optimum times. This will ensure that your audience remain happy whilst you’re out of the office.

10. Don’t Slack On Customer Service

Christmas is an extremely busy time for both users and businesses, especially for those in the retail sector. As sales pick up, and the holiday spending begins, there’s more chance of customer complaints and queries rolling in. So, where does the modern consumer go to voice these concerns? Social media of course!

Whether you’re short-staffed or just extremely busy, your business has to be ready to deal promptly and politely with any queries. Luckily, social media gives both you and the consumer a voice, allowing customer service to be a two-way street.

I cover this topic in my latest video, which you can view below, but the four main things to remember are as follows:

Discover – You don’t have to sit back and passively wait for feedback to come to you. Find forums and communities on social platforms that are discussing your brand and engage with them positively.

Inform – Use social updates to keep users informed. Hosting a Christmas sale? Tease the news via Twitter. Opening your doors a little earlier than expected? Post an update to your wall about this. Social media is a great way to keep all those who are interested in your brand up-to-date.

Language – Tailor your voice to both your brand and your audience. Not everyone has to be the funny Twitter brand, sometimes it’s more worthwhile to post a reliable, polite and helpful reply.

Fail Upwards – Every mistake is an opportunity. Take all the feedback, even the negative, and use it to grow your brand and become better. Essentially, your brand should be more like Batman.

Follow these top tips and your seasonal social campaigns should run as smoothly as possible. For more information on how Koozai can give your brand a boost this season with social media management, contact our dedicated sales team today.

Share this post

At a statuesque 98ft tall (or 6ft 7”, whatever) Harry’s head and shoulders above the rest when it comes to social media. He’s also got mad DJ skills and is a lover of Pugs, bacon and if you tell him you haven’t seen a certain movie, he will make you watch it. You’ve been warned.

Free Whitepaper Twitter For Business Guide

What do you think?

The Psychology Of Colour In Marketing

When it comes to building a content marketing campaign, it can be difficult to know where to start. You may have an initial idea but bringing it to life and getting your message seen are always harder than initially thought.(more…)

Nicola Churchill @with_nic

30th Jun 2017 Content Marketing

Koozai Launches Free Breakfast & Learn Events

We’re excited to announce that we’re launching a series of free Breakfast & Learn events for brand-side marketers. Our digital marketing experts will help you to boost your SEO, paid media, paid social and content marketing knowledge over breakfast.(more…)

Cat Birch @MissCatBirch

25th May 2017 News

Digital Ideas Monthly

Sign up now and get our free monthly email. It’s filled with our favourite pieces of the news from the industry, SEO, PPC, Social Media and more. And, don’t forget - it’s free, so why haven’t you signed up already?